Punxsutawney Pete Mel Confirms: “The El Niño Hype is Real!”

Giant Mavericks for the weekend!

Every November 11, surfers, fishermen, sandcastlers and ocean kayakers gather before dawn in front of Freeline, there in Santa Cruz, and wait for Punxsutawney Pete Mel to emerge. The 56-year-old big wave legend, best known for his Mavericks wrangling, is also a weather pattern soothsayer and, thus, the gathering at his third-generation family surf shop’s door waiting for word of what the winter might bring, wave-wise.

El Niños are, as every waterwoman knows, are very fine things for wave riding, the juiced up Pacific muscling wave after wave after wave to battered shores. Millionaire homeowners are, of course, bummed but any poorer soul who finds joy in the brine is generally stoked.

There have been predicted El Niños in the past, millionaire homeowners battering down hatches, poorer souls waxing rhino chasers, but they have not come to fruition, though Pete Mel has called each one, dipping his head out of Freeline’s door and slowly shaking his head.

This year, though, he burst forth jubilant and declared, “The El Niño hype is real! The ocean is extra alive!”

Huzzahs could be heard as far as Mission St. BBQ, to the west, and Marianne’s Ice Cream, to the north.

The aforementioned Mavericks even predicted to light up this coming Saturday. Santa Cruz’s KQED spoke to hellwoman Bianca Valenti, who shared, “I’m really excited to see what happens on Saturday because we don’t really know until the day comes. It doesn’t get this big very often.”

Mel added that the mysterious Kelvin Wave phenomenon might be something to consider. “I’ve heard of Kelvin waves,” he explained, “I never actually had to deal with one. I guess I would have when I was a grom [a young surfer], when the ‘82/83 El Niño hit. There must have been some sort of Kelvin wave, but I don’t remember anyone talking about them. You’re sitting in this spot and all of a sudden a wave will come out of somewhere different than expected and that’s where I feel like the Kelvin wave has added its extra elements.”

As if Mavericks needed any more sass.

Will you, anyhow, be readying your gun for action or cowering up in the hills, pretending you are recovering from some ailment?

Here’s Pete Mel, in either case, going big not home.